beneath the threshold
by wondertwinkies
Summary: “ah, tenten, you’ve got a rip on your back.” he briefly wonders since when their relationship had gotten this far. but tenten is never subtle, and everything is warm —nejiten, oneshot.


It is a gloomy gray day, gusts of winds sweeping over the horizon, stinging their faces with an icy breath. It is ghost-quiet.

"Well, that sure was quick. Don't you think so, Neji?"

He takes a look at the several dull corpses spread out beneath them, closes his eyes, and sighs.

"Don't say that in front of the people you just massacred, Tenten. It's disrespectful."

She squints at him and sticks her tongue out.

Although, he does agree with her. In just a second that horde of shinobi was gone. He wonders how Tenten got so stealthy and slick like that, taking lives in the blink of an eye with barely a sound in her wake. He wonders when he started paying attention to the little things about her at all.

She tilts a dead shinobi's head with her foot and smiles deftly when she hears Neji growl about it. "Ha."

Then, a beat. "It's so cold."

It really is. The sky is a cloud, the world a lonesome shadow, cold and dank but weirdly humid. It smells like the aftermath of rain.

-

**beneath the threshold**

by alex

_a/n: oh lord, how long has it been since i've last written nejiten? a long time ago, that's for sure. but i'm so thankful since i finally found that spark again — that goddamn nejiten spark. it's kind of infuriating but... I love them, and i whipped this up just to get back in track. hope you like it :)_

-

Tenten takes a step forward, turns away from Neji's direction and starts humming as she adjusts her ties. Neji doesn't miss the flash of tanned skin as she lifts her arm.

"Hn—ah, Tenten, you've got a rip on your back."

"Oh, what?"

She turns around on herself and sees it. It's quite a big space, from underneath her neck to the juncture at her waist, the flaps of her outfit swaying in the tumult of frosty air. There's much more exposed skin than the amount Neji's accustomed to. And her binds are showing.

"Damn, my binds are showing. Sorry about that," she says, attempting to put the flaps back in place. It falls away, naturally. "Damn."

"You're exposed in front of dead people," he says wearily, over a corpse, whose eyes are still left open. Tenten's kunai is lodged perfectly at the center of their neck.

Huh.

"Yes, okay, whatever, Neji."

When he turns back to her he sees the haphazard tuck of flap under bind, watches her turn to him and blow her bangs out of the way onto her lopsided buns and flash him a beaming smile.

He resists rolling his eyes.

"What?" She questions, annoyed.

Okay. He can help an eye-rolling.

"Stand still."

Tenten feels a cool rush of air as Neji appears at her back, his hot breath fanning her icy neck. It's warm.

Gingerly, he fingers the round bands of bandages he carries around in his pockets, gets behind her, and lifts her shirt up in one swift motion.

"Fuck, Neji! It's cold."

"Apologies. Wait."

Then he inserts the bandage, diagonally across her waist and overlaps it with the connecting flap and loops it around to repeat it with the other one. When his fingers accidentally brush over her skin, he sees goosebumps blossom quickly after over her toned form.

"Woah, your fingers are warm."

"Really?"

"Yeah. They're pretty darn warm."

Then he seals it off with his teeth, this cross against her back, and smiles silently to himself at the handiwork.

"That's it."

"Oh, wow," she says, smiling. She turns around at her back. "Thanks. I didn't think of that."

"No problem." He moves beside her, staring down at the bodies in front of them. There is a hushed silence between them now, but it's not as awkward as it used to be. Instead, it's strangely comfortable, like the feeling of a blanket thrown over, sinking down slowly.

"It's awfully frightening, you know."

"Hm?"

She gazes at the sea of corpses that lay waste at their feet, and her eyes soften. "How quickly it can all slip away."

He nods. "And in the end, you're just one amongst multitudes, just another dead body, no reflection or presence to the life you lived before."

"Like, as I was killing all these people, taking their lives, I never once thought about the people they were, the persons they used to be. There's no story behind it, no take of bravery to bring honour to their origins. It's just a situation and an outcome. This is the outcome."

Neji considers this for a moment, and for a moment Tenten can see the gears in his head turn.

"That's true. That's why we need teams." He smiles at her. "Partners."

"Hm." She agrees.

They stood in silence for a while, the frosty air still stinging their cheeks. Then, Tenten lurches.

"Aww, shit. I think I'm getting hypothermia. It's just too damn cold."

"We can pass by the Hyuga Compound for some chamomile tea. I'll walk you home."

"Ya sure?"

"Hn."

"Right." She elbows his chest. "It's a date then."

Then she flashes him a genuine smile, and it throws the butterflies in his tummy out of course.

Then she shivers. "Wait, come here."

When she grabs his arm, Neji doesn't stiffen as much as he used to. "I need to preserve body heat."

He doesn't flinch when she presses her body into his chest, soft and cold but still incredibly female. It's close enough that he can catch a whiff of shampoo from her hair (and maybe just a little bit of sweat).

Then she lets out an exhale that seemed like she had been holding in for a while, and snuggles ever-deeper into the hard planes of his body. "Thanks."

"That isn't your best excuse to feel me up, you know," he says, trying to ignore her butt pressing against his thighs. She chortles.

"Aww, Neji, is that your attempt at flirting with me?"

He nods quietly and smiles. "Hn."

"Aww, sick," she says, pushing him lightly on the chest. "You're such a dork, Neji."

"So I've been told."

She huddles closer to him, despite herself. Then a softer look blankets her eyes, and she stares into the bleak, ghostly horizon one last time.

"We better get going." He says, Tenten physically feeling his warmth leave her back. "Others will come to collect the bodies."

"You're right, that's honorable," she agrees, stretching from her position one last time. "Although, it does make you think."

"Hm?"

"Neji." Her voice is much softer now. She's like three feet away but he can swear that's the most sincere gaze he's ever met. And something magical passes between them.

Tenten turns around, grabbing him by the collar. Her round eyes are staring up at him, searching for answers, expecting him to do something, like he's the only thing in the world that matters to her.

Then she does the thing that jolts him the most about her and kisses him.

Sure, they've made out… a few times, sometimes in even denser conditions than this. It's still as intense and dizzying as it was before, Tenten's warm mouth burning holes in his, lighting his soul on fire.

But he knows that despite all the past times, he will never, ever get used to this, and it does weird things to his heart, making him put down defenses he's held up all his life.

Then she breaks it, her moist lips snapping back into place. Then he sees her blush and bite her lip and something flares in his manly pride then, like he has this effect on her no one else has. That no one else should have.

"Thank you for having my back."

There are so many words, so many words he wants to say, but all he can do is move forward, his hands on her shoulders.

"No."

He leans forward, closes his eyes, and brushes his lips to her forehead, soft and light like a butterfly's wings.

"Thank you for having mine."

-

_They are fifteen. Tenten is muttering curses, groaning when the bandage she's tying falls out of bounds every four seconds._

_But her hands are so soft. And she's so near. And Neji is too hurt to move._

_"You told me you could dodge them!" She exclaims, hastily biting off the bandage in his bicep and tugging his sleeve down to cover him arm._

_Maybe he should've been more careful. Maybe he could've died if Tenten did not always keep one eye open to watch his blind spot. Maybe he should've been more careful._

_"'m sorry," is all he can croak out, half-expecting her to continue her bout of rage and yell at him for not watching over his weakness properly._

_Instead, her face softens, and when she kneels in front of him his heart leaps out of his chest._

_"You know, I can't always be here for you," she says. There's a look in her face Neji can't wrap his finger around. It's her eyes. They're looking at him, expecting him to do something. To do more._

_"Thank you for saving my life. Again," is what he wants to say. But all he can do is lie there, shell- shocked, a wound the size of a coin straight through his arm._

_His hand, he doesn't know how, has found its way to her face, cupping her cheek. He sees Tenten's eyes widen, eyebrows furrowing, biting her cheek in effort to play it cool. His mind is screaming a million things (I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I—)_

_"Tenten…" He croaks. She exhales._

_"Accidents happen all the time," she says, smiling woefully._

_"But it's the big accidents," something in him jolts at that moment. "That you really can't afford."_

_His hand finds her shoulder then, then the back of her head, then he leans forward and pulls her body to his. It's a little blunt and straightforward but it's there, and he's too tired to explain why or beat himself up about it._

_"Thanks."_


End file.
